Botany
Apatot is an erect, smooth shrub or small
tree, 3 to 10 meters high. Leaves are broadly elliptic to oblong,
12 to 25 centimeters long, with pointed or blunted tips. Peduncles are leaf-opposed,
solitary, 1 to 3 centimeters long. Flowers are not bracteolate, and form dense, ovoid or rounded heads, and are 1 to 1.5 centimeters. Calyx is truncate.
Corolla is white, 1 centimeter long; limb is 5-lobed, 1 centimeter in diameter.
Fruit is fleshy, white or greenish
white, ovoid, 3 to 10 centimeters long, with the odor of decaying cheese.
Constituents
- Fruit contains phytochemicals: lignans, polysaccharides, flavonoids, iridoids,
nonisides, scopoletin, catechin and epicatechin, damnacanthal, alkaloids.
- Root bark contains a crystal glucoside, morindine (C27H10O15), and a coloring matter, morindine.
- Fruit yields a volatile oil, morinda oil.
- Studies have yielded scopoletin, octoanoic acid, potssium, vitamin C, terpenoids, alkaloids, anthroquinones, sitosterol, ß-carotene, vitamin A, flavone glycosides and linoeic acid.
- Leaves yield flavanol glycosides, beta-carotene and iridoid glycosides.
- Study of methanol extracts of leaves, stems, and fruits yielded 22 constituents. Eight were new compounds: morinaphthalenone (3), morindafurone (8), morinaphthalene (9), morindicone (12), morinthone (13), morindicinone (14), morindicininone (15) and 5-benzofuran carboxylic acid -6-formyl methyl ester (20) with 14 known constituents.
Properties
- Fruit is emmenagogue.
- Root is cathartic.
- Bark, because of morindine, is febrifuge
- Tonic.
- Leaves considered vulnerary.
- Studies have suggested anticancer, antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anthelmintic, analgesic, hypotensive, anti-inflammatory, and immune-enhancing effects.
Parts utilized:
Roots, bark, leaves.
Uses
Edible
- Fruit is edible, but not great tasting,
raw or cooked, salted or curried.
- In Indo-China, fruit eaten with salt.
- Fruit occasionally used as pig feed.
- In Java, young leaves eaten as vegetable.
- Tonic drink is prepared from decoction of pounded leaves and stem bark.
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, fruit is used as emmenagogue.
- Leaves, when fresh, applied to ulcers, facilitates healing.
- In Malaysia, heated leave applied to the chest and abdomen for coughs, nausea, colic, enlarged spleen, and fever.
- In Indo-China, leaves used as deobstruent and emmenagogue.
- In Bombay leaves applied externally for wound healing, and internally, as tonic and febrifuge.
- Decoction of charred leaves with mustard for infantile diarrhea.
- Juice of over-ripe fruit used for diabetes.
- Over-ripe fruit used as poultice and for treating kidney diseases.
- In Java, juice of fruit pulp, mashed with sugar, is slightly laxative.
- Syrup of fruit juice used as a gargle for sore throats.
- Expressed juice from leaves applied to relieve pain in gout.
- In Malaya and Cochin-China, over-ripe fruit used as emmenagogue.
- Fruit used internally in various preparations for swollen spleen, liver diseases, beriberi, hemorrhage, and coughs.
- In India, fruit used as deobstruent and emmenagogue.
- Unripe berries, charred and mixed with salt, applied to spongy gums.
- Leaves, fruit, flowers or bark used for eye problems, wounds, abscesses,
fever, constipation.
- Leaf juice used for arthritis.
- Used for bone and wound healing.
- In Polynesian traditional medicine, used for anticancer activity.
- In India roots used as cathartic.
- Bark decoction used as astringent; used by the Malays for ague.
- In the Congo bark used as febrifuge, an effect attributed to morindine.
- Tonic produced from the pounding and cooking of the leaves and stem bark.
- In Hawaii, considered a medicine for tuberculosis.
Others
- Cleaning: Pulp of fruit used for cleaning hair,
iron, or steel.
- Dye: Bark produces a reddish purple to brown dye used in batik making. In Java, roots used for dyeing.
- In Malaya and Thailand, tree used as support for pepper plants.
Noni rage
Briefly ruled as a herbal dietary supplement snake oil
cure-all (Noni Juice or as a morinda capsule supplement ) claiming a wide
range of therapeutic effects: antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antitumor,
analgesic, hypotensive, anti-inflammatory, and immune enhancing effects
among many others.
Studies
• Antioxidant / Anticancer: Study suggest the prevention of carcinogen-DNA adduct formation and the antioxidant activity from commercial juice made from M citrifolia fruit may contribute to the cancer preventive effect of M citrifolia.
• Nitric Oxide Scavenging Activity: Study of plant extracts of 17 Indian medicinal plants, M citrifolia was third in potency of dose-dependent nitric-oxide scavenging activity.
• Herbal Hepatotoxicity / Case Report: Report of a case of hepatotoxicity from a three-week history of drinking Noni juice. Pathology was confirmed by liver biopsy. Transaminase levels normalized within a month.
• Antispasmodic / Vasodilator Activities: Results suggest the spasmolytic and vasodilator effects of Moringa citrifolia are mediated possibly through blockade of voltage-dependent calcium channels and release of intracellular calcium – mechanisms that may explain its use in diarrhea and hypertension.
• Analgesic: Study suggests the alcoholic extract of fruits of Moringa citrifolia appears to have an analgesic effect. Morphine sulfate was the reference drug.
• Wound Healing / Antioxidant: Study showed antioxidant and wound healing activities: increase in wound contraction rate, tensile strength, granuloma breaking strength, collagen content and hydroxyproline content.
• Antiviral / Cytotoxicity: Study of fruit juice of M citrifolia displayed marked cytotoxicity in lymphocyte (MT-4) cells and inhibition of HCV subgenomic replicon replication in Huh 5-2 cells.
• Apoptosis-Inducing Effects/ Cytotoxicity: Results showed an anti-growth effect from induction of apoptosis. Study showed noni may be useful in the treatment of breast cancer either on its own or in combination with doxorubicin.
• Antidyslipidemic: Study of extracts of leaves, roots, and fruits showed antidyslipidemic effects in rat models mediated through the inhibition of biosynthesis, absorption and secretion of lipids, possibly, partly due to the presence of antioxidant constituents in the plant.
• Prevention of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting: In a preliminary, prospective, randomized double blind, placebo-controlled trial, a noni extract was showed to have an antiemetic and prophylactic property, effectively reducing the incidence of early postoperative nausea (0-6 hours).
• Weak Estrogenic Activity: Noni appears to restore normal menstrual cycle and alleviate menstrual symptoms. Study showed M. citrifolia has very low potency in comparison to estradiol, suggesting its beneficial effects of are not closely linked to estrogen-mediated action.
• Noni Combined with Physiotherapy / Cervical Spondylosis: Study showed Noni combined with physiotherapy to be an efficacious in the management of neck pain and stiffness in patients with cervical spondylosis.
• Antioxidant / Wound Healing: Study of Mc leaves was done on experimental wounds and lipid peroxide levels in rats. There was a significant increase in wound contraction rate, skin breaking strength reflecting increased collagen levels. Results showed aqueous extract of leaves enhances wound healing and possess antioxidant activity.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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